Hallucination
by TheWeatherOutside
Summary: Gordon is concussed, and Alan needs a break. (Day 22 of Whumptober 2019 - Hallucination)


Alan sighed as leant against a large rock that sat in the cave. When he finally got out of here he needed a long overdue break away from his brothers.

Speaking of brothers, the one he was watching over decided to close his eyes again even though he knew he shouldn't.

"Hey, Gordon! Open your eyes."

Gordon groaned, but he still listened to his brother's command and slowly peeled his eyes open again.

"You're mean," Gordon mumbled from where he sat opposite his brother.

"And you're concussed. Don't fall asleep."

Gordon still looked annoyed but there was a smirk on his face, like he was completely aware of the anguish he was causing his brother. He at least kept his eyes open.

Alan leant back against the rock and tried to relax for just a moment. It was the first time he'd had a moment to breathe since the cave collapsed on the two of them. Alan had managed to get out of it unscathed, but the same couldn't be said for his brother. But that was what happened when you didn't wear your equipment.

Alan knew that his moment of relaxation was going to be brief, as a second later his attention was back to Gordon as his brother's face twisted in pain and he reached for where the rock had hit his head. Alan had done his best to wrap a bandage around it using the limited amount of first aid supplies he had in his sash, but blood had already begun to seep through.

"My head 'urts," Gordon grumbled as he dug the heel of his hand into his eye to try and push away the headache that Alan was sure he was beginning to experience.

"That's what you get for not wearing your helmet."

"The radio was broken, I hadta fix it!" Gordon vaguely gestured to where his helmet was laying in the ground not far away.

"Brains said to just wait until we got back to the island," Alan argued, but he knew there was no point in it. Gordon was not going to reason with him, not when he was concussed. Or any other time at that.

Gordon went quiet again and Alan used that opportunity to try and get through to their brothers again. He tapped on his comms, but there was still no signal. He hadn't been able to contact his brothers since the cave collapsed. He just had to hope that they were already making their way through to them and would be there soon.

Alan decided that the best way to wait for them was to keep busy, so he crawled the short distance across the cavern to where Gordon was. He reached up to Gordon's head and began to slowly unpeel the bandages that were slowly getting soaked through with blood.

Gordon grimaced as Alan fiddled with the bandages, but he at least tried to stay still. Alan inspected the cut that ran just above Gordon's left temple, right where the rock had hit him, and saw that it was still bleeding slightly. Although, it had lessened quite a bit than when Alan had first checked it. The side of Gordon's face was also quite bruised, but there wasn't anything Alan could do about that with the limited supplies they had.

He grabbed some fresh gauze and gently held it to Gordon's head. Then, he wrapped the last roll of bandages that they had around his head and taped the end down to keep it in place.

Once he was done, Alan sat back on his heels to examine his work and nodded in approval when he saw that the bandages weren't going anywhere.

He turned back to their small amount of supplies and began to pack it away. Maybe he was just being hopeful that they would get rescued any moment now, but he wanted to be ready to leave when they were finally freed from this tiny space.

"How are you feeling?" He asked Gordon without looking at him.

"Like the three of you need to stop movin' 'bout or I'mma throw up."

Alan sat up and turned to Gordon in concern, his current task forgotten.

"Three?"

"Yeah. Alan, Alan and other Alan." Gordon pointed towards where Alan was kneeled in front of him, but when he moved his arm along he was just pointing at empty space.

Alan frowned as he moved to sit closer to Gordon and held his hand out in front of him.

"How many fingers am I holding up?"

Gordon seemed thoughtful for a moment and he squinted his eyes as he leant forward to examine Alan's hand, before he replied.

"Four?"

It was two.

Alan sat back again and tried to think about what he should do. He didn't know if there was something he _could_ do other than make sure Gordon stayed awake and wait for their brothers to get to them.

He turned back to the small selection of equipment in front of him and tried to find something that could help. There was a small sachet of water that they usually carried in case they came across a rescuee who was dehydrated and they didn't bring a bottle of water with them. It was small to make it easy to carry, but that also meant there wasn't much water in it. It was still something, though.

Alan faced Gordon again and was alarmed to find that his brother's eyes were closed again.

"Gordon!" Alan grabbed Gordon's shoulder and shook him slightly in case he had fallen asleep.

Gordon groaned and pushed at Alan's hand. Alan let out a sigh of relief to see Gordon was still awake, but his brother still didn't open his eyes.

"You need to keep your eyes open."

"Don't wanna. The room keeps spinnin'."

Alan grasped one of Gordon's hands and put the water in it, and Gordon opened one eye to peep at whatever Alan had just given him.

"Drink this, it'll help."

Gordon eyed it suspiciously, but he still opened the cap at the top and began to take slow sips of the water.

Knowing that his brother was occupied for the moment, Alan glanced at the wall of rocks that were blocking the two of them from their exit. He looked to see if there was any way that he could move the rocks from this side of the wall. Neither of them had the right equipment to drill their way through, but perhaps Alan could lift some of the smaller rocks out of the way. Maybe that would help his brothers get to them quicker?

But there was one problem with that. He wouldn't be able to take his eyes off of Gordon in case his brother decided to fall asleep whilst he wasn't looking. Although, he did have an idea.

"Hey, Gordon?" Alan faced his brother again, and was happy to see that he had heard the question. "Talk to me."

Gordon looked at him in confusion, his brow furrowed, but he at least didn't question as to why Alan was telling him to do that. "About what?"

"Anything." Alan stood up and backed up to the wall of collapsed rocks, his eyes not leaving Gordon until he started to talk. "Anything that comes to mind."

Gordon still eyed him suspiciously, but then he started to talk. Alan smiled, pleased as he turned to the wall in front of him and began to move the rocks.

* * *

Several minutes passed. Alan moved the rocks that he could lift to the side whilst Gordon found a variety of topics to talk about. It was just like Gordon to constantly find something to talk about, and for once Alan didn't mind if it meant that it would keep his brother awake.

However, suddenly there was a moment that passed by without Gordon saying anything and Alan spun around in panic, thinking that his plan had failed and his brother had still fallen asleep.

Thankfully, when Alan faced Gordon, he found that his eyes were still open and he was staring up at the ceiling of the cave.

"Gordon?" Alan asked as he made his way back over to his brother.

Gordon jolted like Alan had startled him out of whatever he was transfixed on, and he turned to Alan with a sheepish look in his face.

"S'rry, what was I talkin' 'bout?"

"What were you looking at?" Alan asked instead.

"Nothin'." Gordon gestured vaguely to the ceiling. "Jus' shadows."

Alan frowned as he looked up at the dark ceiling above them. The only light they had in the cave was from a couple of their torches, which meant that the edges of the cave around them was littered with shadows. However, the darkness wasn't that interesting to look at and Alan wondered what it was about it that mesmerised Gordon so much.

But then Alan remembered what Gordon had said to him earlier, and he wondered what concussion-induced hallucinations he was seeing that Alan wasn't.

It concerned Alan how Gordon's condition seemed to be getting increasingly worse. Alan didn't miss how Gordon's speech was slurring or how his eyes seemed to be glazed and vision vacant.

Alan looked over to the collapsed wall he was just at. There wasn't much else he could do to it without heavy duty equipment, so there was no point in going back over there. So instead he sat back down opposite his brother, and this time he wouldn't take his eyes off of him.

* * *

It took a while before anything else seemed to change.

Anytime that Gordon was even close to slipping his eyes shut, Alan was there to keep them open. It seemed to be getting harder and harder for him stay awake and Alan really did feel for him. He knew that Gordon would feel much better if he could just fall asleep, but Alan also knew that if he let that happen then things could end up much worse.

So instead Alan tried everything that he could to keep Gordon's mind occupied. Even Alan was beginning to feel drained by the end of it, and it was a welcomed sight when he saw the wall of rocks begin to shift as a hole was drilled through from the other side.

"Gordon, look. Help has arrived. They sure took their time."

Gordon turned his head and slowly blinked at the beads of light that were coming through the wall, and then he groaned as his head fell back against the rock behind him.

"Now 'm never gonna get to sleep."

Alan couldn't help but laugh as he fell back on his hands. Scott and Virgil were here. They could take charge now and Alan could finally relax, could go back to being the younger brother whilst those two took responsibility for a bit.

And Gordon was right; the two of them would make sure that Gordon would not sleep before he was allowed to. He was going to be subjected to a lot of smothering, the poor guy.

At least the younger brother role involved him sneaking snacks to injured brothers that the smother twins wouldn't allow them to have, and Alan would gladly comply. Even if it did mean he had to wait for his break.


End file.
